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Twittering in Church?
A biblical perspective on faith and technology.| Outcomes, Fall 2009
As I was preparing to write this article, the latest issue of Time magazine arrived. An oversized iPhone graced the cover. Its screen featured a "tweet"(a Twitter entry) from stevenbjohnson: "I've written this week's Time cover story about how Twitter is changing the way we live—and showing us the future of innovation. Buy a copy!"
What are Christian leaders to do with potentially life-changing technologies? Can iPhones and Twitter help us advance the gospel? Should we resist these infernal technologies in the hope that they will flee from us? Or is there a more nuanced response, one that embraces technology carefully and critically?
Here are seven theses to guide you through a careful, critical effort to bring faith and technology together in service to the Lord.
Thesis 1: We need to think theologically about technology.
Most Christian organizations feature a widespread absence of theological reflection on technology. Generally speaking, we evaluate specific technologies from a strategic perspective—"How will this help my organization function more effectively?"—and an economic perspective—"Is it worth the investment?" This is all well and good. But I have not found many Christian leaders who have thought deeply about the theological implications of the technological tools they use.
Thus, I applaud Outcomes for this issue's theme, and for even asking someone to write this article. I hope to be a catalyst for your own theological reflection on technology. I hope you ask questions like, "How does my use of technology impact my relationship with God?" "How does it reflect biblical values and priorities?" "How does technology advance our organization's mission?" "How does it hinder our mission?"
Thesis 2: Biblically based reflection on technology is not easy because our world is much more technologically saturated and sophisticated than the biblical world.
In Jesus' time, a net was something used to catch fish, not a vast computerized communication matrix that has transformed the world. Thus, if it's essential for us to think theologically about technology, then those of us who base our theology on Scripture have our work cut out for us. Yet this is work we must do if we want to honor God and enhance his mission through our use of technology.
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